Rainbow Rare Earths: Phalaborwa & DFC Backing

Rainbow Rare Earths (LSE: RBW) is developing the Phalaborwa rare earth project in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, targeting 1,850 tonnes per annum of NdPr oxide from phosphogypsum stacks using a hydrometallurgical process backed by a US$50 million equity commitment from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) via strategic investor TechMet Limited.

Rainbow Rare Earths — Company Overview

Rainbow Rare Earths was founded in 2011 by Adonis Pouroulis and is headquartered in St Peter Port, Guernsey, with operations in South Africa and Brazil. The company is led by CEO George Bennett and listed on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of approximately £207 million as of March 2026.

The company reported a net loss of US$3.3 million for the financial year to 30 June 2025, down from US$4.3 million the prior year. During FY2025, Rainbow raised US$10 million in new funding: US$8.5 million through a royalty sale on Phalaborwa future revenues to Ecora Resources, and US$1.5 million via a share placing. TechMet Limited, backed by the US DFC, is the company’s key institutional shareholder.

The company’s strategic focus is a replicable phosphogypsum processing model — extracting separated rare earth products from the waste stacks of legacy phosphate fertiliser operations, bypassing the conventional hard-rock mining route entirely. CEO George Bennett has confirmed Rainbow is actively exploring partnership opportunities applying this model in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Canada.

Phalaborwa: Rainbow Rare Earths’ Flagship Project

The Phalaborwa project sits on phosphogypsum stacks in Limpopo Province accumulated from decades of Foskor phosphate processing. The resource stands at 35 million tonnes at 0.44% TREO. The key technical advantage is that phosphogypsum is already chemically cracked during phosphate manufacturing, requiring lower energy input to unlock the rare earth content than conventional ore processing — a characteristic the company claims makes it cost-competitive with Chinese producers.

Rainbow Rare Earths’ planned process extracts and separates multiple products from a single feed: approximately 1,850 tpa of NdPr oxide, around 80 tpa of dysprosium and terbium combined, and approximately 140 tpa of yttrium within a mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) designated SEG+, which also contains samarium, europium, and gadolinium. At an overall recovery rate of approximately 65%, the operation would process around 2.2 million tonnes per annum of phosphogypsum over a 16-year project life. For current neodymium price benchmarks, see our NdPr price tracker.

A December 2024 interim economic study returned an NPV10 of US$611 million against upfront capital expenditure of US$326.1 million. The definitive feasibility study (DFS) is targeted for completion in 2026, having been delayed from an original H1 2025 target. Construction is targeted to begin in 2027, subject to DFS outcome and project finance, with first production targeted in 2028. These dates are targets, not confirmed commitments.

The US$50 million DFC equity commitment, announced at COP28 in December 2023 and channelled through TechMet, is structured to deploy on construction start rather than immediately. It represents a significant de-risking signal for project finance discussions. Rainbow has appointed Berenberg as incumbent broker and Stifel specifically for North American investor access, consistent with its primary target market of US defence and clean energy supply chains.

A pilot plant launched in January 2026 at Mintek’s premises in Johannesburg is generating process data for the DFS and providing third-party validation for project finance lenders. Early results have delivered meaningful flowsheet optimisations: leach stages reduced from three to two, residence time cut from 32 hours to eight hours, and filter requirements reduced from 14 units (180 m²) to seven (163 m²). ANSTO in Australia has been engaged to model the solvent extraction circuit for the DFS. The operation targets up to 90% renewable energy use. Investors tracking terbium prices and dysprosium markets will note that Phalaborwa’s HREE output — approximately 80 tpa of Dy and Tb combined — positions it as one of the few non-Chinese sources of separated heavy rare earth products in development.

Uberaba and the Replication Strategy

Rainbow Rare Earths’ second development asset is the Uberaba project in Minas Gerais, Brazil, sourced from phosphogypsum stacks at Mosaic Fertilizantes operations. In March 2026, Rainbow signed a joint project development agreement with Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS), one of the world’s largest phosphate producers. A favourable preliminary economic assessment has been completed and a pre-feasibility study is underway, with DFS and construction both targeted for 2026 and 2027 respectively — timelines that run in parallel with Phalaborwa rather than in sequence.

The company describes Uberaba as potentially larger in scale than Phalaborwa. If the phosphogypsum model is validated at DFS stage across both sites, Rainbow would hold a replicable blueprint applicable to other fertiliser processing hubs globally — the strategic rationale behind the CEO’s active conversations in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Canada.

Rainbow’s earlier asset, the Gakara project in western Burundi, previously operated on high-grade TREO veins but has been impaired and is no longer an operational focus. The company recorded a US$717,000 impairment on Gakara in FY2024. It is retained as a background asset but is not material to the current investment case. Rainbow Rare Earths is one of a small number of developers working toward western rare earth supply chain independence with assets in production-ready jurisdictions outside China.

Rainbow Rare Earths’ Position in the Global REE Market

The global NdPr market remains dominated by Chinese separation capacity. Non-Chinese projects targeting separated NdPr oxide — rather than mixed concentrate — are rare, and those also producing separated heavy rare earth products rarer still. Phalaborwa’s product specification, if achieved at commercial scale, would place Rainbow among a handful of government-backed rare earth developers capable of supplying separated HREE directly to Western magnet manufacturers and defence supply chains.

The phosphogypsum feedstock model carries distinct financing characteristics relative to conventional mining. There is no exploration risk, no open pit, and no underground operation. The primary technical risk lies in hydrometallurgical process performance at scale — which the Mintek pilot plant is designed to address before DFS completion. The US DFC backing, the Mosaic partnership at Uberaba, and the appointment of Stifel for North American distribution all point to a company positioning for US government procurement and defence offtake.

Company Snapshot

For more on Rainbow Rare Earths, visit the Rainbow Rare Earths investor relations page. Production data references use USGS Mineral Resources Program benchmarks for global rare earth context.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. All project timelines, NPV figures, and production targets are company-stated estimates subject to revision pending DFS completion and project finance.